YIKES! Major slowdown for reading this month and a rather boring mystery that seemingly went on forever—but I somehow felt compelled to finish—didn’t help. But I did read a couple of fun Marvel reprint books, so that’s a plus!
Original Sins by Erin Young
Original Sins is the second book in author Erin Young’s Riley Fisher series and it’ll be the last one I read. This book was a real slog for me, bogged down in the middle with a lot of driving around the dreary state of Iowa in winter, looking for clues for a case that isn’t even Fisher’s to start off with. I’m not sure if it’s the overly descriptive text by Young that I dislike the most; after a while it just seems like filler to reach a predetermined word-count. That may just be my own peccadillo, since I’m so used to the sparseness of a writer like Michael Connelly for my mystery/thrillers. Or maybe it’s once again a case of 10 pounds of story stuffed into a 5-pound book bag, just like in Young’s first novel, The Fields: plus way too many characters, some of them mentioned early and then showing up again way later, making you pause to think, “Wait … who is THIS guy?” I like crime novels with strong female protagonists (Connelly’s Rachel Ballard, Lee Goldberg’s Eve Ronin, Susie Steiner’s Manon Bradshaw, William Shaw’s Alexandra Cupidi), but Riley is just too wishy-washy for me, even though she’s gotten a new job with the FBI and is a favorite of the recently elected governor of Iowa. Her family problems, her guilt over neglecting her niece, her “will they or won’t they” possible romance with a former co-worker (presented in this book in just one scene) … all collide to give me the impression of a character in desperate need of a “SNAP OUT OF IT!” slap across the face from Cher, direct from Moonstruck. It took me forever to finish this book … I guess I just should have walked away from it early on. Iowa in the middle of winter isn’t a fun place, especially with a sad-sack FBI agent.
Marvel Romance by Various
This relatively rare Marvel Comics trade paperback is a bit hard to find, and I settled for a lesser-condition one (with a cryptic label on the inside front cover that reads: “From Caitlin. Two-year AlAnon anniversary, May 30, 2007” … how’s that for some very personal documentation?), because the price was right (CHEAP!). I think the romance books are a sadly overlooked part of Marvel history, especially some of the late 1960s titles, like Our Love Story and My Love. There are very few character reprints in this book—Millie the Model is absent altogether, and Patsy Walker appears in one story and some fashion/hairdo pages—but the real treat is the art by Jack Kirby (on four different stories; how he fit in these romance stories into his schedule in late 1962 is beyond me, and his women’s hairstyles are .. well, let’s be polite and call them “cutting edge,” pun intended). Some of the late ‘60s stories by John Romita, John Buscema, Gene Colan, and that one amazing Steranko tale from Our Love Story #5, are included . Marvel needs to do a Romance Omnibus reprinting those books; the art by Buscema especially seems like something he was really into, with amazing layouts and illustration, and when you combine it with inks by Romita, it’s revelatory.
Mighty Marvel Masterworks: Captain America Vol. 3 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
This is the last MMMW volume featuring 1960s Captain America stories solely by Jack Kirby. It reprints Tales of Suspense #s 96-99 and Captain America #s 100-105, and it’s pure Kirby magic. It’s from his “big panel” era, and it’s right before he leaves Cap behind (with issue #109) to concentrate solely on Fantastic Four and Thor. The two-part Black Panther tale (from ToS #s 97 and 98) is my favorite, with one of Kirby’s best Cap covers (#98). Joe Sinnott inks the first part of this volume, to be replaced by the heavy-handed Syd Shores right before Cap finally gets his own book; Shores inks Cap #s 100-103, with Dan Adkins doing a lackluster job on #104, and Frank Giacoia on #105. But all these stories are, as Stan Lee might say, “All-out Action in the Merry Marvel Manner!” plus you get to see Cap and Agent 13 go on a date!
Currently reading: From the Moment They Met It Was Murder: Double Indemnity and the Rise of Film Noir by Alain Silver and James Ursini
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